“Meat products are still one of the harder products to keep in stock,” explains Rodney Holcomb, food economist at Oklahoma State University. “Following last year’s concerns about meat availability, many consumers are stockpiling meat out of concerns of another pandemic shutdown.”
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CHARLESTON, W.V. (WOWK) — Have you recently gone to the grocery store and found some of the shelves empty? If so, you aren’t alone.
Many people can’t find some of their favorite and essential items since the pandemic started.
“You can’t find cornmeal because I was looking for that. Can’t find any of that,” said customer Sarah Roach.
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I haven't noticed any shortages at all at our Piggly Wiggly, but Walmart grocery shelves can be a little sparse some days and full others, leading me to believe that around here it's a transportation issue more than anything else.
all of our stores have been low on every drink (except liquor). soft drinks, sports drinks, even the healthy stuff is hard to find. I've survived this long on homemade sweet tea, might as well stick with it
ReplyDeleteThere's plenty here in my area of NC. Aldi's shelves are completely full. Walmart not to bad either.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed shortages of bottled and canned drinks (though not bottled water), some frozen foods, and a few other consumer goods, but not like what we saw last year up here in NH.
ReplyDeleteMeat and coffee haven't been in short supply, but their prices have gone up considerably.
I haven't seen any toilet paper or paper towel shortages.
Some ammo is still in short supply, primarily 9mm,.223, and 5.56mm. Others seem to be readily available though prices are up, but nowhere near as bad as they were earlier in the year.
No empty shelves here. However, the price of beef is unobtanium. Except for a recent sale, which dropped the price of London Broil down to $6.99/lb, most cuts start around $10.00/lb and the good cuts are $15.00+ up to $23.00.
ReplyDeleteNemo
Been in the hospital with the COVID have too get out soon and see what is out there.
ReplyDeleteThey are going to let me out today or tomorrow. Beat it so there is that
A hardware issue, not groceries, but I went to Home Depot a week ago for spray-on orange peel texture. The guy showed me an empty shelf and said they had not gotten it in for several months.
ReplyDeleteI made a grocery run this morning. The meet department was the ony thing I saw that was lacking. It was probably the worst selection of meets I have seen in the USA.
ReplyDeleteIf it comes to it I know a farmer with cattle.
Lots of shelves empty at the Walmarts (several within a few miles of me), but not consistently the same things. Depends on the day or week. Also, heard from employees that the biggest issue is lack of staffing. I have noticed lower staffing at other grocery stores, but they seem to keep stuff on the shelves better. Maybe they have better luck with their people, hard to say.
ReplyDeleteWalmart is probably too cheap to have enough stockers and tries to minimize ordering.
DeleteIf they wanted to do a good job they should assign stockers to each aisle and after awhile, let them order with bonuses for well done stocking. But I really hate stocking cases by hand, one or two cans at a time.
There haven't been any shortages in the UK apart from those caused by idiots panic buying early on.
ReplyDeleteGet a bidet. I know, I know. I'm tellin ya they got one mounts on yer shitter for about sixty bucks. Hook it up in fifteen mins max. I aint advertising got no stock but it's called a clearrear. Best invention since canned beer. Never thought I'd see the day a piece a shit like that would be in my house. They are amazing. The fancy ones for several hundred bucks have heated seats, air dyer, remote control etc. Mine is simple and two squares of paper and I'm dry. Tired a shit streaks in older age get one. They be gone.
ReplyDeleteplus ships waiting to dock in LA. Farmers told to kill their stock or plow under their crops. Problem is storage and workers. Biden planning for a dark winter with a little helps from his (commie) friends.
ReplyDeleteHit the meat cooler on the way home from work this morning...fucking bare. I'm talking one pack of week old steak. No burger, no chicken, bit of pork. However the bacon shelf was nearly collapsing with all the weight...and at $8lb I'm guessing it'll stay that way for a while.
ReplyDeleteOver the last 30 days I have traveled to various areas in three western states. Not just wally world but 'regular' grocery stores have huge holes on the shelves. Paper products and liquor look to be doing well. Food items, including bottled water are woefully short.
ReplyDeleteNow if this was purely a logistics problem, would all products suffer the same shortages? Not necessarily because each manufacturer uses different means including transportation. Differences may be slight but they are markedly different as to affect the procurement to the end user. Still, I gots to wonder if there is not manipulation to effect some agenda. And why not, everything else has gone to hell.
Rick, it also depends upon whether or not the various markets are storing items in the back or are using Just-In-Time deliveries. One of the local supermarkets near me uses JIT for a lot of the products they sell and if there is a schedule disruption you'll see empty shelves here and there since it is mostly frozen foods they'll store on-site.
Delete50% or more of what I do is deliver to stores from the warehouse. The problems are from several different angles. 1st- inbound trucks into the DC. 2nd- warehouse staff. 3rd- DC to store drivers. 4th- shelve stockers. I see a very fragile system, with many ways it can fail. All the chains up here are dealing with the same problems. Wirecutter, weren't you involved with the warehouse side of the delivery chain? I bet you have a lot of insight into what can go wrong with that part. Good help is hard to find, and keep.
ReplyDeleteSeeing this where I'm at. I bought some sausage at Winn Dixie, cooked half of it and a few days later went to cook the other half and it stank. Looked at the expiration date and it was old. I now check the dates big time and am amazed at what I see. The Lowes I use has no utility trailers in the lot and had two zero turns on the floor. Made a big chow run yesterday and got lots a stuff in the freezer. I lease a bit of pasture for beef cattle and have a barter system going on meat. I just bought and moved here so working on getting the garden set up. The place already has established fruit trees but need more. Got a nice hog pen so maybe a couple hogs in the near future. I do believe it's going to get worse. Lots of demand no supply the prices will skyrocket. I told my wife, ya want something ya better buy it cuz in months to come ya either won't find it or it'll be out of our price range. Oh, were snatching up all the heirloom seed we can find too. We just moved about 4,700 miles and so much we could bring with us. We're buying our needs quickly.
ReplyDeleteOur local Walmart and Homeland stores have random shortages of a few items but are generally well stocked.
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